Managing Editor Iona Italia talks to Tiffany Jenkins about her fascinating and provocative new history, 'Strangers and Intimates: The Rise and Fall of Private Life.'

My pick of last month's history and non-fiction.

Some weekend reading from me: an interview with @tiffanyjenkins.bsky.social exploring the history of the self, and of private and public life, since the Reformation mathewlyons.substack.com/p/interview-...

New on the Broken Compass: an in-depth interview with @tiffanyjenkins.bsky.social about her brilliant book Strangers and Intimates, which explores the rise and fall of the private life and the history of the self.

"Today, there is little distinction between the public and private world," @tiffanyjenkins.bsky.social writes. "We blame the convenient scapegoat of the moment: the internet. But this gets the timeline wrong. By the time social media arrived, we were already living in a post-private world."

American privacy died long before social media or the internet. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

🧠 Ideas winners 🧠 THE IDEOLOGICAL BRAIN by @leorzmigrod.bsky.social OPEN SOCRATES by @agnescallard.bsky.social PROTO by @laurainparis.bsky.social STRANGERS & INTIMATES by @tiffanyjenkins.bsky.social DON’T FORGET WE’RE HERE FOREVER by Lamorna Ash

With privacy/AI books by @orinkerr.bsky.social @rcalo.bsky.social @superwuster.bsky.social @tiffanyjenkins.bsky.social @simson.net @casssunstein.bsky.social @emilymbender.bsky.social @alexhanna.bsky.social

Delighted that Strangers and Intimates: The Rise and Fall of Private Life is an @economist.com book of the year. www.economist.com/culture/2025...

The artist Sophie Calle shows that in our rush to surveil and be surveilled we have overlooked the fundamental fact that the most important parts of human experience remain invisible. open.substack.com/pub/tiffanyj...

These intimate objects reveal a life more collective, communal and precarious than ours. ✍️ Tiffany Jenkins

Michelangelo dismissed Flemish art because it encouraged viewers to emote rather than contemplate. ✍️ Tiffany Jenkins

A new biography of the formative years of the Victorian poet illuminates an unparalleled historical moment of vulnerability and wonder. Tennyson was young once | @mathewlyons.bsky.social engelsbergideas.com/reviews/tenn...

‘300 hours of raw footage, filmed over seven months, revealed the dirty laundry behind the facade’ | Tiffany Jenkins

Big tech didn’t kill privacy. We did. My debut for @unherd.com unherd.com/2025/09/how-...

Tiffany Jenkins’ new book is a passionate defence of the value of privacy. The ability to keep some things private is at the heart of human creativity, freedom, and happiness, she argues. Perhaps even this does not go far enough.      

I en tid, hvor mange deler deres inderste med omverdenen, argumenterer Tiffany Jenkins for det modsatte - at holde sit privatliv for sig selv. Særligt på arbejdspladsen kan det være uhensigtsmæssigt at dele for meget: buff.ly/8Gnx4m4

"It is crucial for human freedom, indeed for a civilised society, to acknowledge that human beings aren’t simply political or communal animals." I reviewed Tiffany Jenkins' illuminating history of privacy/private life via @quillette.bsky.social quillette.com/2025/08/29/s...

9:30am TODAY on @BBCRadio4Extra The History of Secrecy Ep 2 of 5, God's Secrets The purpose and power of objects and secrets in religion. Tiffany Jenkins explores the idea of secret knowledge. From 2016.

9:30am TODAY on ⁦‪@BBCRadio4Extra‬⁩ The History of Secrecy Ep 1 of 5, The Age of Secrecy Tiffany Jenkins explores the idea of secret knowledge. Back in the Middle Ages could alchemy reveal secrets of nature? From 2016.

Lovely Andy Goldsworthy retrospective @ National Galleries Scotland. Moving, playful and a little dark.

Here's 361E: Dr. Tiffany Jenkins discusses STRANGERS AND INTIMATES: THE RISE AND FALL OF PRIVATE LIFE, which traces the evolution of the private realm from the ancient world to its current shifting and precarious status. @tiffanyjenkins.bsky.social turnthepage.blubrry.net/2025/07/31/t...

When sex becomes a spectacle | Tiffany Jenkins engelsbergideas.com/notebook/whe...

The bedroom has become a broadcast studio, and what was once private has transformed into the ultimate public performance. My piece for @engelsbergideas.bsky.social engelsbergideas.com/notebook/whe...

Happens to us all, Maureen.

It has been said The Magic Mountain--published 100 years ago--is a "summing up of the European soul and mind”; we must realise this encompasses, no less, Europe’s anxious encounter with Asia. My @newstatesman.com essay on Thomas Mann's East-West dialogue: www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2024/1...

Fabulous from @lauracummingart.bsky.social on the almost-forgotten master photographer William Notman, who left Scotland for fame and fortune in Canada: observer.co.uk/culture/phot...

Delighted with this thoughtful review of Strangers and Intimates: The Rise and Fall of Private Life in the @thetls.bsky.social www.the-tls.com/politics-soc...

'A denuded concept of privacy is ‘more about agreeing to terms of service ... than the right to be left alone’.' Cordelia Fine on the private sphere is under threat

Gatsby at 100; Big Tech is watching; a day in Orwell’s life; decolonizing museums; a new manuscript by John Locke – and much more. This week’s TLS is out now: www.the-tls.com/issues/curr...

How did we lose the sense that some parts of life should be off-limits rather than open to commodification? Tiffany Jenkins's thoughtful new book Strangers and Intimates explores

How did we lose the sense that some parts of life should be off-limits rather than open to commodification? Tiffany Jenkins's thoughtful new book Strangers and Intimates explores

Delighted that Strangers and Intimates has made the Economist’s top 40

And here is another funny clip with Geoff Dyer speaking with @tds153.bsky.social and @tiffanyjenkins.bsky.social on his father’s commitment to privacy.

This is very good on the pessimism and fatalism of postliberalism.

‘The discreet charm of patrimonial regimes' Ivan Krastev illuminates why Trump's blatant self-enrichment is accepted—his transparent corruption of the public/private divide signals authentic & honest power when democratic institutions have lost trust. www.ft.com/content/7b53...

The idea of privacy is a surprisingly modern notion, but one worth defending. A little history of privacy | @katherineharvey.bsky.social engelsbergideas.com/reviews/a-li...

#TheMissingThread is out in UK paperback in 6 weeks with a regal new cover! A new history of the ancient world foregrounded by women: 3,000 years, 500 pages, £12.99. I'd be so grateful if you'd consider pre-ordering a copy from anywhere you like waterstones.com/book/the-mis...

“We can trust these male writers” Thoughtful and serious discussion bwt @mathewlyons.bsky.social & @daisydunn.bsky.social on the challenges of ancient history - balancing contemporary questions about women's roles with understanding the past as a foreign place. open.substack.com/pub/mathewly...

I so enjoyed doing this and recommend the others in the series - lots of different answers!

Brand new episode with Mok O’Keeffe, the very entertaining and knowledgeable @tiffanyjenkins.bsky.social and moi, talking all things private and public! Are we losing any semblance of privacy in our world, and is that harmful? A really fun conversation. youtu.be/cW-hyparO6Q?...

Strangers and Intimates — can life still be private? https://www.ft.com/content/0607963d-225f-4747-b415-9cbb132830c4

Delighted to join Russ Roberts on EconTalk discussing privacy's surprising origins, current threats, and why it remains essential in our digital age. youtu.be/ixd23MnUoaM?... #private #privacy

“The difference between immigration now and in the 1960s and 1970s is not simply a matter of numbers, huge though they are. It is also the social context within which migrants find themselves.” My Observer column: observer.co.uk/news/opinion...

Delighted to make Book of the Week in the New Statesman. www.newstatesman.com/culture/book...

Really enjoyable and thought-provoking conversation about personal histories Really looking forward to our evening with Geoff Dyer on 3rd June in #Cheltenham Tickets here: www.ticketsource.co.uk/rossiterbook...

This @lrb.co.uk piece by Rosa Lyster on the Crufts dog show is a hoot or, rather, a woof. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

The first two reviews were the most negative. The Scotsman: "It is an interesting but somehow unsatisfying novel… It may be said that such is life, but is it art?" The Western Mail: "Readers of preternaturally nimble intellect may discover a consecutive story. We are only normally endowed."

Mrs Dalloway was published 100 years ago today. It’s now recognised as a masterpiece, but what did its first readers - the literary critics of the day - think it it? Responses were varied, it’s fair to say… mathewlyons.substack.com/p/first-sigh...